Personality and self-concept...

As Bing Crosby once said;

When Madam Pompadour was on a ballroom floor
Said all the gentlemen "Obviously,"
"The madam has the cutest personality"

Who is the elusive Madam Pompadour? And what does she have to do with our learnings on personality? I have no idea...sounds nice though doesn't it?


All of us are unique. We all have seperate personality traits and different aspects of our personality that are only found in us. This should make us happy. However, the fact that I came out as Homer Simpson in the Simpson's Personality Test slightly disturbs me. Does this mean I'm a lazy, beer swilling slob? Possibly. Will this revelation change my way of living? Probably not.



The personality test tells me that coming up as Homer means I am the sort of person that lives for the moment which is a fair comment. You could turn this around and say that I don't think about the consequences before I do things, which again is probably a fair comment. But I prefer it the other way, thank you please.

The negative side of being "A Homer" is that I often take conflict personally (fair shout) and I "resist relationships that require me to function on a high intuitive or thinking level". To me what this says is that although I love drinking and sitting around the house, I do also hate having to think about things and I get the hump all the time...perfect!

The positive side to being labelled "the entertainer" is that I am able to have a positive influence on other people's lives on a daily basis by making them laugh. Whether they are laughing at me or with me is not of my concern. I'm happy enough in the knowledge that people find me funny.

Whilst personality and self concept are very different things, you generally find that a person's self concept plays a big part in defining certain aspects of their personality.

Personality can be defined as;
‘One’s habits and usual style, but also…ability to play roles.’ (Cronbach, 1984) [online] http://changingminds.org/explanations/personality/personality_is.htm

Self concept can be defined as;
"The ideas, attitudes, and perceptions people have about themselves". [online] http://en.mimi.hu/marketingweb/self-concept.html

My thoughts are that whilst personality is unique and can't be changed, many individual personality traits are defined by people's self concepts.

"People see themselves as they imagine others see them." Solomon (2001)

The above quote supports my view that self concept can be influenced by what you think other people think about you, and therfore certain personality traits can develop or be sub-consciously exaggerated in order to fall in line with the image other people have of you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz6-Nf1e0vU

The advert on the link above appeals to my childish side. Do I have a childish side or do I just project that image because I feel that other people think I'm childish? Who knows...maybe that's why I'm a Homer.

Ciao for now.